It’s the most wonderful time of the year – and a time to create Christmas traditions to treasure for many years to come.
Here, the Citizen Enfants mums share how they celebrate the special day, which festive traditions they love, and what they do to make the season magical for their little ones.
Sheena Bhattessa, mother of two; founder of Citizen Femme
Christmas is spent in the Caribbean with my husband’s family; always very special but very different to a London Christmas with which I’m familiar. With two little children in tow and another on the way, I am beginning to create my own traditions. Before we leave London, we meet Father Christmas plenty of times, whether we go to Hamleys or Chelsea Physic Garden, along with numerous other activities that I book. Pantomimes are a regular family trip – they’re so wonderfully hilarious and my entire family always takes one full row accompanied with plenty of sweets; we have a good old laugh, followed by an afternoon tea somewhere.
I’m in charge of presents for the entire family and my sister is in charge of wrapping. Everyone gets a present or two. Many years ago, I had personalised stockings and baubles made on Etsy, adding more as the family expands. I fill them with Celebrations and Ferrero Rocher (or protein bars for the healthier ones in the family), and one really special surprise in each. They are hung up along the fireplace, alongside mistletoe on every door in our parents’ house – which is usually where Christmas takes place. Since we are away for the 25th, we do a pre-Christmas family celebration (with Father Christmas, of course) and then celebrate on Christmas Day itself again. In the Caribbean, we have lots of friends with children about the same age, so an annual Christmas pyjama party is customary. We leave milk and cookies the night before, and early morning, we are out of bed far too early – to find footsteps in fake snow that I’ve put out on the floor, because Father Christmas even makes it to the Caribbean. Then it’s time for a lovely lunch by the beach and, when the babies are sleeping, some card games.
Morag Turner, mother of three; editor of Citizen Enfants
My family have always placed a lot of importance on traditions, particularly at Christmas. The one that is dearest to me is making mince pies with my boys. I use my grandmother’s pastry recipe – and I remember, so vividly, my little sister and I standing in her kitchen, aprons on, her showing us how to roll out and cut the pastry. Now I do it every year with my boys. We pop on the Christmas tunes and make tray after tray throughout December. The kids love a homemade mince pie every day after school and there is a constant supply for all the friends and family who drop in. We also pop them in little gift bags to give to teachers and neighbours as presents.
Another tradition I love is getting out all the decorations my boys have made over the years. My eldest son is 16, so I have a huge supply of wonderful creations that successive talented teachers have helped them to make. They go on the children’s tree in the playroom, which ends up a wonderful hotchpotch of colours and shapes. It’s a joyous walk down memory lane and what I feel Christmas is all about: celebrating with my children and feeling incredibly grateful for them.
Christmas itself is always spent at my family home in the Scottish Highlands. There’s a big gang of us and it’s so much fun. Carols in the village square (with mulled wine for the grown ups), snowy walks, mince pies by a roaring fire, endless board games with all ages joining in (our current fave is the family edition of Cards Against Humanity) and lots of precious time with the people I love most – festive bliss!
Alexandra Carello, mother of two; head of PR at Citizen Femme
We will be at home in London with my family. I grew up in London, so this is where I love to be. We’ll have champagne and presents in the morning, followed by a big lunch at my parents’ house, after which we walk across Hyde Park to The Connaught for martinis in the bar. My daughters are little but they are really starting to understand the magic. I always make sure they have a stocking filled to the brim on the edge of their beds, because as a child I loved waking up and feeling the weight of the stocking on my bed. Candy canes on the tree are a sure-fire way to get them excited too. I also love taking them to see all the London lights, popping into Claridge’s to see the beautiful tree, and going bauble shopping. I even get my daughter her own mini tree so she can go wild with the decorations – and so I can have mine left alone!
Rachel Story, mother of one; style and commerce director at Citizen Femme
Our Christmas is spread out over a few special get togethers and lots of delicious food. Last year we hosted both sets of families for the first time, so I’m excited to be going back to my parents’ house to be looked after this year instead! We’ll host my husband’s family at our house the weekend before Christmas, before heading to Shropshire. My Mum really goes to town on decorations, turning our family home into a truly magical place to be. I can’t wait for my son to see the little train that rattles around the tiny track at the bottom of the Christmas tree – he’s going to be totally enthralled! My little one has just turned two so it’s the first year he’s been excited about Christmas and presents, or that he has half a clue who Santa is!
We then have a third Christmas when my brother, sister-in-law and my three nieces arrive on Boxing Day and the celebrations start all over again. Charades is a must post Christmas lunch. My sister and I have an uncanny knack of knowing exactly what the other one is thinking – meaning no one else in the family stands a chance! We start the morning opening presents in front of a roaring fire, still in pyjamas (I dig out my best Olivia von Halle silk pair for the occasion) with a glass of champagne in hand. This year, my little one has some special pjs too, from Chelsea Peers, which I can’t wait to see him in. Then we change into something festive and dressy before indulging in a traditional Christmas lunch with all the trimmings, plus a log of fillet steak for good measure. After all that grub, we always go for a big family walk around our local national trust, Attingham Park, with our dogs. We have four of them between us. One of the traditions I plan to start next Christmas is a trip on the Polar Express by the Telford Steam Railway.
Ella Alexander, mother of one; fashion features director at Citizen Femme
I grew up in a big family where Christmas was and is a big deal, so I’m very keen to create the same magic for my son. He’s only little still, so we’re in the process of forming our own traditions. The first is an annual outing to Dulwich Woods where we go foraging for decorations – branches of pine trees, garlands of ivy and boughs of holly that we drape over the staircase and shelves around our house. The smell is so beautiful and it’s also just a really fun, wholesome thing to do. The other thing we’ve started doing together is panettone breakfasts every weekend (and let’s be honest some week days too!). Few things taste better than toasted panettone slathered with butter. Food is such a central feature at Christmas and so it’s nice to have traditions based around the lovely things we eat.
On Christmas Day itself, we wake up in our own home in London before having breakfast locally with my father-in-law. Then we hop in the car and off down to Kent for a noisy, very merry day with my parents, siblings, grandparents, aunt, cousins, nieces and nephews. There’s usually over 20 of us and my son loves the chaos and fun of being with everyone. The day usually includes a lot of music, a family film and a very long lunch which starts at 3pm and ends at 8pm! The most important tradition for us is all being together – just how it should be at this time of year.
Jes Salter, mother of two; contributor to Citizen Femme
What I really love about Christmas is creating new traditions that I hope will become beautiful little core memories that surface for my children each festive period, too. Obviously when they are tiny, you know they won’t remember, but my just-turned-seven-year-old is now big enough to remember and look through photo albums. That makes everything more magical. Ever since she turned three we’ve gone to Skate at Somerset House – and now the littlest one is three I’ll start taking her too. The backdrop is beautiful, and they cater for families really well with penguin skate aids. We’ve always had a really fun afternoon out. On Christmas Eve we celebrate Wigilia – a Polish celebration – and toast the first star at night with friends and neighbours who are in London. That evening I give the girls new pyjamas – this year they are from If Only – and will treat myself to a new pair, too.
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